


Doppelganger

by DiannaPhantom27



Series: Karivarry Life Swap AU [2]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012), Supergirl (TV 2015), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: AU, Angst, Barry and Kara are there for him, Caring Lovers, Earth-2, F/M, Grief/Mourning, I did not mean for Team Flash to come off as bad people, I swear, M/M, Oliver is a mess, Oliver is just dealing with a lot, Panic Attacks, Supportive Partners, Tumblr, Writing Prompt, life swap au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-26
Updated: 2018-12-26
Packaged: 2019-09-27 18:30:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17167103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DiannaPhantom27/pseuds/DiannaPhantom27
Summary: In another world Barry Allen is a Kryptonian, Oliver Queen is the Flash, and Kara Danvers-Grant is the Arrow. These are their adventures.This prompt is one of three in which the asker requested Karivarry dealing with their pasts.The second of fifteen.





	Doppelganger

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thatgirlwholikessupergirl](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=thatgirlwholikessupergirl).



> Hello! I’m going to be taking prompts for a Karivarry AU I’m hoping to write, but need to get my feet wet with first to figure out everything I want to do with it first. So, that where you all come in! I’ll be taking the first 15 prompts to write so long as they are in the AU I’m working toward. 
> 
> The AU? A lifeswap or roleswap AU. 
> 
> Basically: Kara is the Green Arrow, Oliver as the Flash, Barry as…well his name won’t be Superboy (I don’t know what it will be yet), but you get the picture. 
> 
> This is the second of 15, suggested by [ If anyone wants to leave me a prompt, please head to my Tumblr: ](https://thatgirlwholikessupergirl.tumblr.com/)[DiannaPhantomFiction](https://diannaphantomfiction.tumblr.com/)

Oliver hit the wall hard as his legs gave out. He wanted to beat himself up over his careless running, over running out of the foundry. It was a bit daft, to just run off without a word, likely scaring his friends and family in the process. But his vision was tunneling, his breath edging toward super speed, his heart pounding faster and harder even as his energy was sapped away.

Of all the people that could have been under that metal monstrosity of a mask, it had to be his mother. Well, no, not Moria Queen, her doppelganger, Jayla “Jay” Garrick. Earth-2’s real Flash.

The wound of Oliver’s mother’s death was to new, though. Still red and festering, not bleeding, but held closed by stitches still. The minute the mask came off and Jay’s face was revealed, all Oliver could see was Zoom’s vibrating hand sticking out of his mother’s chest. It wasn’t Jay’s fault, but her mere presence had ripped open the wound and rubbed dirt in it.

He had to get out of here. He had to get out of Star. Not for long, just for the night, or a couple days. He’d have to come back to say goodbye to Earth-2’s Malcolm Merlyn (lovingly called Mac by his team) and his firecracker of a daughter, Thea. Oliver just couldn’t be here, not right now.

Central was closer than National, so he started running, not even bothering to change into his suit. He poured everything he had into his running, right into the Speed Force. Before he knew it, he was in Barry’s apartment. He apparently had phased right in, because Barry’s sister, Iris, looked positively startled. Oliver jacket was hanging on by a few threads, his jeans had holes in them, and his shoes no longer had soles, but he couldn’t bring himself to care.

“Ollie?” Barry asks carefully, stepping up to Oliver and placing a hand against his cheek.

Oliver collapsed at the touch, all his energy rushing from his body. Barry caught him, easily holding up even Oliver’s Speed Force enhanced body with his Kryptonian strength. Barry lifted him up, carrying him to the couch as Iris gratuitously bowed out of the apartment.

Oliver squeezed his eyes shut as Barry held him close and whispered soothing words to him. Oliver must have fallen asleep at some point, because he woke up feeling sore and half dead, his head resting on Barry’s lap with the smell of something cooking in Barry’s small kitchen.

“Hey,” Barry said, placing a gentle hand on Oliver’s shoulder, “Welcome back. Kara’s in the kitchen, I’ve got her making chicken and rice.”

“You let Kara in your kitchen?” If it wasn’t pot stickers, Kara still mostly ate for survival rather than taste, her one cooking skill seemed to be making an edible stew out of anything she could find.

“It’s chicken and rice. I don’t think even Kara could mess that up.”

“I can hear you, you know?” Kara called from the kitchen.

Barry ran a hand through Oliver’s short hair. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Oliver swallowed a thick lump that hand suddenly formed in his throat. “Not yet.”

“Alright.” Barry doesn’t press. “We can watch Die Hard and eat carb filled food and whenever you’re ready…”

Oliver didn’t feel like today was a Die Hard day. “What about Toy Story?”

“Sure, we can watch Toy Story.” Oliver could practically hear Barry’s concerned frown and furrowed brow.

After a couple minutes, Kara came in, expertly balancing three bowls of chicken and rice in her arms. Oliver forced himself to sit up as she set down the bowls in front of them. Finally free, Barry jumped to his feet at super speed. Despite the urge, Oliver didn’t let himself slip into “Flash Time” instead forcing himself to experience the seconds as seconds, feeling some comfort as Barry draped them in blankets and queued up the movie.  

Kara nestled against him, placing a kiss to Oliver’s cheek before setting her head on his shoulder. Barry snuggled in on his other side and started the movie. They ate and watched the movie quietly, when the first one had finished, Barry started Toy Story 2 without a word. Oliver relaxed into the warmth of being surrounded by his partners, he felt his heart rate start to slow, focusing on Kara’s head on his shoulder and Barry’s hand laced with his.

Oliver spoke up as the credits began to roll. “I told you about Earth-2?”

Both of them nodded, shifting so they could focus on Oliver as he spoke.

“Well, we found the real Jay Garrick, and she…she’s my mother’s doppelganger.”

Barry and Kara went still beside him.

“Oh, Ollie…” Kara whispered, squeezing his hand.

Now that Oliver had started, he couldn’t stop. He started talking about his father and how he had to watch her die twice. About Thawne and how even though he considered Mac family that he sometimes couldn’t help but see Thawne when he looked at him. About Diaz and how helpless he’d felt when the other speedster broke his back and how he’d put up a front because he couldn’t stand the thought of making them feel helpless. About how he couldn’t stop having life-like dreams of Diaz’s hand sticking out of his mother’s chest. About how sometimes he resented his friends and family, who seemed to want him to be inspiring and near perfect as possible, never backing down and never letting hardships get to him. About how sometimes he resented Sara the most because she was the only one who had never treated him like that and she had up and left him.

“I just want to…I want to turn back the clock so none of this ever happened.” Oliver admitted, wiping the couple of tears that slipped from his eyes away from his cheeks. He suddenly felt a bit embarrassed. Oliver wasn’t really a crier. Like Kara, he’d trained it out of himself as a survival tactic. Crying over his mother’s imprisonment, Lance’s disbelief of his reality, and his social worker’s threats of in patient psychiatric care hadn’t done him any good. He’d found anger much more productive than despair.

Kara and Barry seemed to still be mulling over what he had just said, probably because they knew he could do it. Barry had a better grasp of Oliver’s powers than Kara, just because he had power too. But Barry’ power was completely physical, he understood Oliver’s constant nagging hunger and the strain of forcing one’s body to exist outside it’s natural state, but he’d never really understand the metaphysical side of Oliver’s powers. Kara tired, she really did, but but you can’t really grasp something like super speed and all its connected abilities without having a power equally as strong. But she always accepted Oliver’s abilities and his body’s oddities at face value.

Finally, Kara breaks the silence, “No matter what you decide, no matter what you do, we love you. We’ll always love you. And we’ll always be here for you.”

The sentence itself felt precious and intimate, the sort of thing that came rarely and like pulling teeth from Kara, and almost sent Oliver into dry sobs. The squeeze she gave his hand and the feel of Barry’s hand massaging a knot where his neck met his shoulder with the slightest fraction of super strength definitely did though.

Barry and Kara didn’t miss a beat. They held him, both whispering reassuring nothing’s to him, Kara at normal speed, Barry at superspeed Oliver found easier to understand. Somehow, the sound of their voices were both soothing and heart breaking.

How in the world could he even be considering a life that might not have them in it?

 

“We should go visit your parents’ graves.”

Over the past two days, Oliver had moved on from a broken mess to barely functioning, not amazing, but a glaringly noticeable change. Kara’s suggestion had surprised him, even though it shouldn’t have. Kara regularly made pilgrimages to her mother’s grave, which sat next to empty graves with Alex’s and her father’s names that she didn’t talk to. Oliver had only had the honor of meet Cat Grant once and he had been both impressed and terrified by her. When he’d woken up, he’d learn that she had died protecting Kara and Alex from a crazy, one eyed, super soldier with a grudge against Kara. Oliver hadn’t been surprised.

Suddenly, Oliver’s brain caught on one of the words. “Wait, we?”

“You didn’t think we’d make you go alone did you?” Kara asked, eyebrow raised.

“I always liked your mom.” Barry chirped and Oliver noticed for the first time that he was packing bagged lunches. Obviously, the plan had been to get him out of the apartment today.

But, Oliver hadn’t been to the graves since his mother had died. He just…couldn’t. The wound had been to raw and he couldn’t bring himself to go alone. Roy had offered to go with him once, but looked like he wasn’t sure if he was supposed to do that. Oliver had taken pity on his little brother (who was recently orphaned, and even more recently forcibly adopted by the Lances) and turned him down.

But, maybe going with Kara and Barry would be cathartic somehow. Like the rush of endorphins that flooded his body after Diggle set a broken bone. 

“Alright, let’s do it.”

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> If anyone wants to leave me a prompt, please head to my Tumblr: [DiannaPhantomFiction](https://diannaphantomfiction.tumblr.com/)


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